


Amusing

by superkat500



Category: Original Work
Genre: Blaise needs therapy, Clarity's an ass, Daemons, Demons, Rating May Change, Voodoo, Well - Freeform, deal making, it's hoodoo but, loa - Freeform, not really - Freeform, rating for general themes, soul contract
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-25
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:13:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22897027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/superkat500/pseuds/superkat500
Summary: Clarity and her two brothers are ceaselessly entertained by a dumb Louisiana man, who is hell bent on feeling the same rush as he did the first time he killed someone.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	1. oh great, a straight answer

Summonings were a strange thing, Clarity thought. If a being from the living world found the means, they could pull a “demon” or “angel” (as they were now called) into their own world. Clarity never thought much of this, she’d been summoned plenty of times before, by religious tribes asking for plentiful harvests or individuals asking for love and revenge, but more recently, instead of deals, she’d hear screams and be thrown back into her living room before the flames could calm. So, when she felt the familiar tug at her feet, she decided to give the whole “demoning” thing another go.

Clarity let herself get pulled into a standing position by the whirling flames. As the wind and fire subsided, she was surprised to see a single man, shaking slightly and awestruck, but no screaming and throwing her back into hell, so a plus. He was a tiny thing, about twenty, with swept brown hair and round, silver glasses that shaped his long face. Clarity was briefly surprised to note that his skin was a strange, light color, a not-quite-white with blue markings running down his arms, funny, is this what people looked like now?

Clarity noticed that he mouthed “demon”, and figured that meant it couldn’t be that far ahead of 1500, funny, she figured it’d be much later with the state of, well, him.

Through her entire inner monologue, the man did not move, staring up at her completely frozen, so, getting bored, Clarity decided to speak first.

“It’s rude to stare, you know,” Her triple layered voice and playful tone seemed to startle him back into this realm of existence.

He opened his mouth, but for a second, nothing came out until he finally squeaked out a weak “w- ‘polgies, miss.” and cast his eyes down.

Amusing was Clarity’s only thought as he examined his dress shoes. After a moment, he tried again.

“My ‘pologies miss, but I need a favor.” he stuttered, he had an accent she didn’t recognise, almost guttural, but charming really, even if it was coming from such a small, scared man “a large one a’ that,”

Amusing she thought again, moving to sit in the air, taking her down a couple feet in height, so she was almost level with him. “I don’t do favors I’m afraid,” Clarity said, raising an eyebrow and ditching two layers of her voice, “deals, however, I can do,”

She had figured he knew the whole thing about “demons” and deal making, considering that he had summoned one, but he let out a small gasp, as if he were surprised at the notion. Clarity took the moment to study him further, being closer to his face now, she could see that his eyes were brown, but reminded her of honey for some reason. He had a cut on his neck, one that looked like he struggled a bit while getting. Maybe he’s wants to get away from someone, Clarity guessed.

For the first time she noticed they were in a forest, but not exactly, she felt lots of people nearby, most likely a large village of sorts, and they were standing on an old but well built bridge. Around them was the biggest river she’d ever seen outside of her world. Trees seemed to be growing out of the water and some sort of plant was floating near the trunks in large groups. Clarity had never seen so much greenery in such a small place, it was a bit startling.

Oh wait, he said something. Hardly a murmur, had escaped the man’s mouth, embarrassed and quiet. Clarity took another half second to think, amusing, a man that had enough confidence to summon a “demon”, but not make any kind of deal, what was he thinking?

“You’re going to have to speak up darling,” Clarity laughed, cocking her head to the side.

“I’m ‘fraid I don’t got anythin’ to offer you” he repeated, his strange accent becoming more apparent, “not’n you’ll wan’, anyway,”

“We don’t know that yet, now do we?” Clarity replied, fighting back another laugh, “let’s talk about what we do know, OK? What do you want me for?”

He stepped back a bit, his hands coming up to his chest “ah, well” he laughed, nervous and short-clipped, and Clarity could tell it was a habit of his.

“Why did you summon me honey?” Clarity tried again, and, realising she didn’t know his name, she added a “you got anything for me to call you, at least?”

Another gasp, this one more just a sharp inhale, but still, “Fisher,” he blurted, “call m’ Fisher,”

A weird choice of words, and name, so clearly not his, but whatever, she had something at least.

“And? Why am I here Fisher?” Wow, she’s really patient, she usually wouldn’t have stayed this long, since when had Clarity been patient?

That was a problem for another time, because Fisher was speaking again, “you’re a demon,” he stated, pronouncing it ‘daymon’, which she found cute for some reason.

Clarity remained silent for a moment, hoping he’d continue, after a second, he did. “S… so you probably know a lot more than me about,” he stopped.

No, don’t stop, she thought this was going somewhere, what am I supposed to know about?

Truth be told, she didn’t know much about anything peculiar, but she also didn’t know what “demons” were supposed to know about, so maybe she’d get lucky and he’d ask about cooking, because she was pretty good at cooking.

“About?” she inquired, surprising herself with a soft tone she didn’t know she was capable of having.

“About murder” he blurted again and, hey, Clarity was right, he did want revenge, Clarity could do that, she knew tons about murder, lucky for them.

“Murder?” she mused, doing her best to sound like that was some tall order, “what on earth do you want to know about murder for?”

“W-well,” the stutter was back “I need some kinna… a’vice on somethin’”

Did he want advice on whether or not to kill someone, from a demon? What on earth was this guy doing?

“Advice? Not a kill order? No hit list?” she pressed, her confusion batting away her random streak of patience.

“N-no, tha’s not what I mean,” he corrected, and laughed again, “I wan’, help… nah someone to do it for me,”

A demon’s help to kill someone, but he wanted to do it, okay, that made a bit of sense.

“Who do you want to kill then?”

“Oh, w-well ya see,” another laugh, this one seemed almost placed there, trying to be appealing, “ya see, hah, I uh, han’t decided yet,”

What in the realms?

“Well, I, uh,” oh, she’d said that out loud, whatever, she could roll with it.

“I’m sorry Fisher, but you can’t summon a demon, a powerful one at that, and not have a full deal ready, at least, not without your part ready,” Clarity was so confused.

“No, no, tha’s nah what I mean-”

“Then what do you mean, Fisher? What do you want me to do, I swear I’ve done weirder, just spit it out,” Clarity was done with this, as amusing as it was, but needed answers nonetheless, “you’ve never done left-handed before, have you?”

“Lef’ ‘anded! No no no, I-I ne’r”

“You do realise that’s what this is right?” Clarity pressed, “doing something like this for a personal goal?”

The tension she had just created somehow was tangible, she could feel it in her very being. Fisher was silent for a long while, before simply nodding, catching a half-glance up at her before looking back down. Clarity made a kind of noise in the back of her throat to spur him on, get him to talk already.

He took the hint, and with a sudden ounce of courage, he looked her straight in the eyes, shaking minutely from fear and excitement and the realisation that he was already too deep in to go back.

“I wan’ pow’r,” he said, his voice shaking with him, but air-heady and firm, all at the same time, “you’re a demon, you know how ta get pow’r, how t’ kill an’ get away with it, right?”

And just like that, everything made sense, this scrawny, little, sad excuse for a grown-up had god-syndrome, and wanted to exploit that to the fullest. Wanted to feel the same rush he’d felt however long ago, but didn’t know how to go about it, maybe didn’t want to get caught, or dive too deep, or just wanted someone to share it all with, maybe it was all three. It didn’t matter, he wanted some kind of mentor, and Clarity could do that, easy.

“That, I can do,” she said, “but I’m guessing you didn’t think this through at all,” nod “well, that’s a bit of an order, I’ll have to think for a second,”

She clicked her tongue as she did just that, what would she be doing if she said yes? Clearly she wouldn’t get the answer from Fisher, he hadn’t thought about it at all. The worst that could happen was… a lot, actually, exposure, and exorcism, death, depending on how close she’d be to other people, and what was a given in return? A friend, maybe, someone to toy with, definitely, but that wasn’t really much, so what did she want? well, vague deals could mean vague prices.

A soul would be nice, extra status in her own world, and something to talk to, to play with. It’d definitely be a fair deal, power for power, entertainment for someone to help out backstage, but Fisher was skittish, panicking at the slightest requests, so how could she dumb down wanting a soul?

“You religious Fisher?” Clarity asked, forming half a plan before just trying to see what would work.

Fisher completely froze, looking for an answer. OK, maybe a demon asking a guy if he was religious was a bad idea. “Not anything against you if you are, I guess all I really need to know is if you believe in anything after your death?”

That, apparently Fisher could do, he looked up at her, full of questions and something akin to fear, “should I?”

Oh great, a straight answer. What was with this guy?

“That wasn’t the question,” Clarity teased.

“I, guess I ‘ope so,” he answered, looking back down.

Hope, that’s good, she could work with hope.

“Family?” Clarity asked “someone you’re looking forward to seeing?”

He shook his head, “Jus’ don’ wanna stop existin’, ya know?”

Oh, lucky day.

“Well then heck, this deal’ll do better for you than it will for me,” Clarity exclaimed, throwing a laugh in there for theatrics, “tell you what, I’ll help you with your power kicks, and in return, I get your soul,” Fisher tensed, and his gaze snapped up to hers “after you die, it’s a win-win, you get my help, and you won’t have to worry about fading off, ‘cause I won’t let you,” and because you’ll have bigger things to worry about.

“F-fadin’ off?” he asked, and she was beginning to wonder if he had a stuttering problem.

“When a soul’s forgotten after they die, they kinda just, die again? I don’t know how it works, but if I own you, you can’t exactly be forgotten can you?” she explained “make sense?”

It was as if some kind of weight had been taken from Fisher’s shoulders, one neither really knew was there. The idea of ceasing to exist was a good reason to be scared, sure, but just because she could understand his fear didn’t mean she was going to be nice about it.

“If no one you know has died, then you probably don’t know many people alive, do you?” she asked, already having a good guess at the answer.

“No’ody tha’d r‘member me,” Fisher sounded terrified, and Clarity was relieved.

“Well, no need to start making any friends now, you’ve got me!” a scared, impressionable man with no friends, could Clarity have gotten an easier deal? “So, I help you with your god-complex, you stay with me once you die, good?”

Fisher nodded, suddenly seeming determined and brave, Clarity began to wonder if he had been trying to make her laugh the entire time, because there was no way he was serious. She couldn’t quite place why he wanted to seem sure of himself now, when she practically had to walk him through the steps of making a deal two minutes ago, but she’d never understood people anyway, so maybe this was normal.

Just for laughs, she decided to push her limit a bit “one last thing,” she drawled, and Fisher tensed, again, “I can’t keep calling you Fisher when it’s clearly not your name, so, what is it?”

He breathed in, slow and long, trying to steady himself. When he looked at her again his eyes were full of fear, Clarity couldn’t quite place where it was from. She wasn’t fae, just a demon, what could his name give her other than something to call him that wasn’t Fisher?

Keeping eye contact with her, he actually managed to speak “tell me yours,”

OK, whatever “Clarity,”

“Blaise” he said, then, as an afterthought “Blaise Dasnere,”

“Blaise Dasnere,” Clarity began her deal “in exchange for my own assistance, will you give your soul to me after your mortal death?”

It was a formality, she didn’t need to recount anything, and often she skipped it completely. However, the full effect of restating a deal was a sight to behold as her black, ashen wings flared out around her, the feathers shifting at the sudden movement. Slowly, her irises bled into her whole eye, overtaking the whites and pupils until every part was purple. As she moved to stand on the ground, her horns extended over her head, instead of just staying near her forehead, they stood almost half a foot from her scalp. The triple layer was back in her voice again and it echoed and boomed as she spoke, and a wind that existed only around her whipped at her hair and tail.

Blaise yelped, it was an undignified sound and the only reason Clarity didn’t laugh in his face was because it would have destroyed the sudden tension she had meant to create this time. Clarity did, however, allow herself to smile widely at him, showing off plenty of sharper-than-they-need-to-be teeth. As she smiled, she extended a hand to him, as her brother Tempest had told her that it was how people made deals now.

Trembling, Blaise took the extended hand as if he expected it to burn him. Despite what she thought, his grip was surprisingly firm, and he shook her hand once before trying to draw back as quickly as possible. What Clarity was unsurprised to find was, even if shaking someone’s hand was how you solidified a deal with people, it still didn’t solidify anything for their deal. There was no promise on Clarity’s bracelet and she didn’t feel any form of binding to the man before her. So, deciding it was the only rational thing to do, Clarity didn’t let Blaise retract his hand, but instead pulled him roughly into the circle around her.

Blaise screamed something in Latin, horribly pronounced and with his stuttering and accent and with the fierce whirling of wind around them she could hardly make out what he had said. The wind picked up more and more, until Clarity couldn’t see, and she realised she was leaving. It took her a moment to piece together why making a deal with the man had sent her immediately back home, but after a second she realised it hadn’t.

He had screamed eicio. Expel

Then she realised a second thing, she hadn’t let go of him, and as the winds rolled higher and stronger, Blaise’s hand gripped her’s even tighter. The wind died down eventually, and Clarity was back in her home, with a small man gripping her hand for dear life and physically shaking. Highnis, Clarity’s younger brother, saw the man before either saw him, and slipped into the other room to listen and not be seen. Blaise was slowly removing his hand from Clarity’s grip, and this time, she allowed it, too awestruck about having a human person in her house to think about scaring Blaise further.

Deep breath in, then out, Clarity dropped her hand and stared at Blaise. She wondered if he would be able to go home, if the altar he had made her was damaged at all from the power of being expelled and making a deal at once. Deep breath in, then out, whatever the case, she could get him back to his world, and they could continue with their deal, in, then out. For now, she should worry about Blaise, he looked like he was about to fall over, and she really didn’t need an unconscious human in the living room.

“Hey,” she said with a surprising softness she didn’t know she could have, her voice was just full of surprises today, “Blaise, look at me,” he did, “deep breath in, good, now out,”

He did as he was told, although his very lungs seemed to stutter even while he didn’t talk. She led him through the same motion again, in then out, and again, a few more times and he just looked exhausted. Clarity had heard that the process of dealmaking was very tiring for people, so that, paired with the near panic attack he’d gotten from his sudden trip to her house was a good enough reason for him to need to rest. On top of that, he’d been talking with Clarity for a good bit, and she’d also heard that she was an exhausting person to talk to, so Clarity was surprised that he hadn’t passed out on her yet.

“You need to sit down,” she decided “and I need to figure this out,”  
Blaise nodded, and all but collapsed on the couch next to him, it looked like a bed compared to him. Blaise was small for a person, definitely better fed than any human she’d seen, but not at all large. Even if he was big for a human, the couch would’ve been too big. Amusing, Clarity thought, that she’d never noticed the height difference when she’d been in Africa, maybe people had gotten shorter, or maybe she’d gotten taller, heck, maybe both.

“Deal making is apparently exhausting to mortals,” Clarity said, needing something to focus on, “I’m surprised you’re still awake, but you’ll probably want to rest when you get back to your world, right?”

Another nod, Blaise seemed more focused on breathing than anything else in the world. Clarity took the time to think, what could she do to get him back? She closed her eyes and tried to feel a connection to the living world, and was delighted to find two things. One, she could feel the altar, still standing and open, but pretty worse for wear, and two, a strange connection with Blaise, a soul-deal.

Even though Clarity had more important things to do, she let herself revel in the feeling, it was grounding but it made her feel disconnected at the same time. It was nice to have a living soul again, even if the one she had wasn’t hers yet, the promise was enough to have an effect on her if she looked for it.

She remembered with a bit of amusement that Blaise probably felt the opposite at the moment. The impact a soul-deal had the giving side of such a deal was usually suffocating at first, like someone placed a cage over your chest, and while you could breathe just fine, you felt like you weren’t getting enough space between your lungs and your heart. Clarity was vaguely familiar with the feeling, she’d made temporary soul-deals with other demons before, and knew the feeling went away after the other left, and didn’t return with them. She had planned on leaving as soon as possible, but since it was Blaise that decided to come with her, she couldn’t find much guilt for him.

Alright, probably time to be a good person.

“That uneasy feeling will pass eventually, probably once you get back home, so here’s the deal,” he tensed, and Clarity felt she deserved a medal for not laughing, “I can get you back home, but I can’t come with, so if you’ve got anything to say, say it now,”

Clarity couldn’t tell if Blaise was shaking or nodding, both was a good guess. He looked up at her, made eye contact for all of half a second, and then snapped his gaze down at the couch and whimpered. Whimpered! Like some kind of scared puppy, and Clarity was starting to worry that teaching this guy to kill people was a bit more than she could do. Eventually, he spoke, his voice trembling and tears threatening to spill over his glasses, and Clarity missed the first half of what he said while wondering if the effects of deal making was more intense for humans, or maybe just for him?

She was able to piece together what he needed with the second half of his question though, so Clarity was nice and didn’t make him repeat himself. “-do I talk to you after this?”

“Just say my name out loud somewhere, and if I can, I’ll appear, if not I’ll get back to you when I can, you’ll hear my voice after if I’m ready to pop up, do what you want with that,”

Blaise opened his mouth, then shut it with a small click and shook his head to himself, before challenging another look at Clarity and holding her gaze for a full second before hanging his head down again. Another quick, single nod told Clarity that was all she was getting out of him, and she really needed to get him home before her dad or brothers showed up, so she didn’t push him further.

Instead she knelt down on the floor, slowly so Blaise didn’t panic, and opened her palm in front of him. Blaise took a deep breath and slowly put his hand in hers, the small, white fist being swallowed up in her large, sepia palm. Clarity could feel him shaking as she cautiously closed her hand, and tried to feel the connection to the altar again.

It was weak, but it’d work.

“Ok, I can get you back home,” Clarity said, her voice just above a whisper, “just breath for a second, got it? In, and out”

As Blaise did what she told him to, Clarity closed her eyes and tried to push herself through the doorway, physically straightening up and feeling her very being pushing against her rib cage. Just before flames started to lick at her heels, she mentally pushed the feeling away, onto the fist in her palm. Clarity heard a shout, felt a gust of wind, and felt the hand get pulled away from her. Once she opened her eyes, she was greeted with the sight of the couch in the living room.

“What was that?”


	2. Dishes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this got kudos, you utter buffoon, I have like 12 more chapters already written, you did this to yourself... Also how did you find this? also this chapter is hecking short am sor. Will be updating every other Tuesday from now on.

After thoroughly explaining to her younger brother Highnis that she had not summoned a human as he had asked, but instead had secured the easiest deal she'd ever gotten, Clarity sat on the back of the couch, grinning at him as if she expected him to be in awe at what she'd done. Highnis, being the shining light of purity he was, was by no means in awe.

"Clarity, that's not fair to him," Highnis whined, his voice hadn't dropped yet and he sounded like a little kid when he spoke, but still had a way of getting people to listen to him, it was something Clarity admired, but was also annoyed by to no end.

"What do you mean? He summoned me, I offered him a deal, he took it, he's lucky I walked him through it, without that we would've just stood there while he stuttered until I got bored and left him, only for him to summon a demon that would've killed him for wasting their time," her little brother was usually right, but Clarity really couldn't understand him sometimes,

"I mean, he was panicking, you lied to him too! Of course he gave you his soul, you told him he was going to die again after already dying because no one knew who he was, that's not fair or true," Highnis had his porcelain white arms crossed over his small chest,

"OK, that's true, but I didn't make him do anything! How is it my fault he thought 'oh what a nice day, I think I'll summon a demon and make her walk me through how to make deals, surely she won't take advantage of the fact that I have no idea what I'm doing'" Clarity mocked, hopping off the couch and walking a bit closer to Highnis as she spoke, "what was I supposed to do, be a good person?"

"Yes!" Highnis exclaimed, throwing his hands up and taking the last step forward for them to be practically toe to toe, "even if you do want to be a big, fancy loa like dad, couldn't you just do it by being nice?"

Clarity gave him a look as if he had just spouted nonsense, which, to her he just had. Moving up in ranks was like going from being a salesman to the owner of a business, sure, you can get promoted by being nice and smiley, but without slitting a few throats, the best you could get in a business was a well paid manager, and that wasn't enough in Clarity's opinion. She couldn't see how someone could look at such a situation and be fine settling with anything but the top, the highest of ranks, and the best of titles.

"How? How can a loa be nice while making a deal? The whole point of deals is to come out on top, with more than the other guy, isn't it?"

"No!" Highnis' voice raised an octave, a clear indication that he was nearly frustrated to the point of tears, something that happened often in their family, "the point of a deal is that one person offers one thing and another person offers a thing of equal value in return, that's the definition of a deal,"

Highnis took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and let the breath out through his mouth in a small 'o' shape, his white, downey feather wings tensing and relaxing with the motion. Looking up at his sister, he could tell that she was never going to see eye to eye on this, so he dropped his shoulders and stepped back a bit.

"It's already been done, so there's no point in arguing about it," he said in defeat, "but could you at least be a little nicer to him? You sounded like you were being nice to him before, so just, keep that up maybe?"

It wasn't hard to tell when Highnis was sad, his usually bright, hazel eyes lost the strange sparkle they had, and his wings dropped to hang off of his body a bit. The sight hurt Clarity, even if she knew that she was falling right into Highnis's guilt trip, Clarity sighed, rocking her weight onto one foot and reaching a hand out to ruffle his dark chocolate hair.

"Alright, I'll play nice," Clarity said, moving her hand back to her side,

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> leave comments and shit so I know this isn't awful, Highnis is my favorite to write, but Blaise is my favorite character over all.


	3. Govn'r

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> meet, boi 2, this one's twice the normal chapter length to make up for the last one.

"You will?" and the sparkle was back, and Highis' wings were once again tucked neatly into his back, extending a bit above his head, "that would really mean a lot to me Clarity, thank you,"

Like with most people, Clarity thought Highnis was someone who, while endlessly amusing, was also endlessly baffling. She'd already learned that there was no point in asking why Highnis cared so much about someone he had never met, knowing that he would say something ridiculous like 'everyone deserves kindness' or 'there's no point in making someone's life harder on them', it was just something Clarity figured came from being born and raised in a family with both your parents. It was something Clarity saw in any person she knew who grew up in their parents' home, so she figured the endless stream of kindness and purity was just a strange side effect of having such a weird life.

"Of course, your majesty," Clarity said with a bow, picking her head up to see the bright, dorky smile of her brother shining down at her, "and I wouldn't worry to much, I don't think Blaise will have the guts to call on me again,"

As Clarity laughed, Highnis rolled his eyes, glancing at the clock in the kitchen before bringing his eyebrows together and his lips into a small pout. When Clarity eventually noticed he didn't think she was very funny, she bumped his shoulder and walked into the kitchen to get something to eat.

"Something wrong, Highnis?" She asked, getting a bowl out of a cabinet.

"Where did you get the story that a mortal soul fades if no one cares about it, that's not entirely true?"

"Oh," Clarity stalled, wracking her brain for where she'd stolen the idea from, "you remember that picture you showed me, the one with the boy who died wrong and his grandpa was dying again because no one remembered his name?"

She didn't need to look at Highnis, the deep sigh Clarity heard from him was enough to know that she'd explained it badly enough that he knew what she meant.

"OK, first, they aren't called pictures anymore, they're called movies, second, that is a horrible way to describe Coco, and third, you weren't sure what year he was from, and Coco is a human movie, what if he had just seen that movie?"

That was a fair point, one Clarity didn't know the answer to. So instead of pretending that she had thought about that, she shrugged and stole a leftover salad from the fridge. Highnis sighed again, walking up to lean on the opposite side of the ruby colored island and put his head down on the cool, marble surface.

They stayed like that, just enjoying each other's existence while Clarity ate and Highnis zoned in and out of reality, at one point grabbing a book to pretend to read. Eventually, the silence was broken by the faint sound of a door opening and closing in the front room. Both siblings looked towards the noise's source while they heard someone mumbling to himself, the sound of dress shoes against the dark oak floor beneath them, and the rustling of a jacket being placed on the coat rack, then, in all Tempest fashion, their older brother came down the hall in a white button down shirt, black vest, and loose black dress pants, shoes still on, and mumbling to himself about something they didn't understand.

He didn't notice either of them, so the siblings went back to their lives while he got a cup and filled it with water. When Tempest did eventually notice them, it was when he nearly bumped into Clarity, who was leaning over the island a bit to put an arm on each side of her salad, knowing that Tempest would try to steal it if she let her guard down.

"Oh, hello Clarity," Tempest said, stepping around her while trying to discreetly grab at her food, "how have you been?"

"I've been pretty great, but I see you've come to ruin that," Clarity groaned, trying to save the food from her brother, "how are you?"

"I haven't come to ruin anything, and quite well myself,"

"Ugh, you're not in your nerd office, quit the formal talk,"

Tempest huffed, "It's not an office, Clarity, and being successful is not nerdy,"

"Whatever you say gov'ner," Clarity took a moment to bask in the sound of Highnis' laugh "Why are you talking funny?"

"I'm not,"

"Highnis isn't he talking funny?" Clarity said as she looked over at Highnis for his opinion.

"Yeah your voice sounds kind of weird, are you feeling okay?" Highnis asked, leaning forward a bit as if that would tell him if Tempest was sick.

"I'm fine, thank you," Tempest said, "it's probably just my new client that I've been talking to,"

"Really, another one?" Clarity whined, Tempest was a well known loa who got plenty of deals, it annoyed Clarity to no end, "where do you keep them all?"

Clients were what Tempest called deals, or deals were what Clarity called clients, there was no set term used to describe a human on the end of a loa-human deal, but most people called them deals, toys or souls.

"They all stay where they want to be, that's why people are comfortable making deals with me, Clare," Tempest lectured.

"Yeah, yeah, your soft so you let humans take advantage of you, big whoop," Clarity teased, nudging her brother's shoulder both to get him to back away from her bowl and let him know she was kidding, "I'll tell you something that's really interesting,"

Recounting the story she had with Blaise was worlds more entertaining to Clarity with Tempest listening. Clarity was faintly aware that her brother didn't see it in her to attain any better status then a high demon, but she didn't mind, instead she decided that she'd get pictures of his face when she did finally become a loa.

The entire time she talked, Clarity watched Tempest be the perfect audience for her. He sighed when she made fun of her deal, furrowing his neat, probably plucked eyebrows when she said something confusing, and even looking around when she said Blaise had been in the living room, as if expecting to find him hiding behind the couch. By the end of the story, Tempest seemed at a loss for words, but Clarity knew better, you never expect anyone in the Luv family to be at a loss for words.

"You met a human," a nod from Clarity prompted him to continue, "he admitted to being a murderer, and you agreed to help him kill people, okay, that part I understand, but then he goes to shake your hand, thinking that's how you finalize a deal, and instead of just correcting him, you pulled a timid, shaking man into a demonic circle, and figure everything will be fine,"

Clarity continued nodding through his whole rant, adding a more definite nod and a hum of confirmation at the end. Yellow eyes glared at her before closing lightly, Tempest took a deep breath of air as if to clear himself of his sister's stupidity, and opened his eyes.

"He somehow carried the two of you to Seperate, a place where no being aside from lougarou are supposed to exist, and you just... sent him back? No big deal?" Tempest had his folded arms resting on the island table, and his shoulders were just over his elbows, making him seem more square shouldered than he really was, he looked over at Clarity with a pleading look that this was a joke.

When all Clarity did in return was lift up her right wrist to reveal a new blue bead amongst the many different multi-colored ones, Tempest closed his eyes and pursed his lips together, letting out a steady stream of air to calm himself with the noise.

"No one has ever, in any history that I know of," it's important to note that Tempest was a history major in an esteemed magnant school two years ago "brought a human into Seperate, or sent anyone, demon, loa, anyone, through a doorway using a soul bond,"

"Well than I guess I'll just have to make history," Clarity bragged, throwing her hair back and winking at Highnis, who snickered and walked into the living room.

"We can't tell anyone about this," Tempest interrupted, grabbing his sister's shoulder, "do you understand how dangerous that would be?"

"Uhh, no?"

"People here aren't nice," Tempest explained, releasing his sister and using his now free arm to gesture to the great wide everywhere, "and see humans as gullible, weak, and lesser than lougarou. If people were to find out that you could bring a person here, any living person would be stuck here and probably tortured, not everyone holds deals, and if you could trap your client in an alternate plain of reality, no one would see a reason to,"

This... was a good reason not to tell anyone. While Separate wasn't Hell, good people there were hard to come by, nearly everyone grew up an orphan on the streets, hardened by constant street fights and robberies so much that you could get dumped in an alleyway for a stray glance. Even if someone was a higher up, that didn't mean they were nice, really, anyone with decent clothing in Seperate was just better at hiding knives.

"Yeah okay that makes sense," Clarity whispered.

"Have you told anyone about this?" Tempest asked, ready to play damage control for his sister again.

Clarity shook her head, "no, just you and Highnis,"

"So mom doesn't know?"

"No, she's at work, why would I call her at work," Clarity stalled, knowing her fate but not accepting it just yet.

"Mom knows more about deals than any of us do," Tempest began, lecture time, "she wasn't brought into a family anywhere when she was younger, everything she's learned she knows from experience, and yes that's made her amazing at what she does, but that doesn't mean that you need to follow that. If you need help with something, you don't need to pretend that you know what you're doing, you have me, dad, and mom to help you, especially with something as strange as this,"

"Yeah yeah, I get it, you've got my back, I've got yours. You, me and Highnis against the world, but calm down, I ca-"

"That's not what this is about," escape attempt number two: failed, "I know that you can handle yourself just fine, you've proven that to me over and over again, and I get that this was a situation where you felt you had to act quickly incase this might be hurting Blaise, but if something happens again, you need to tell mom, after all she's been doing this since-"

"Since she was nine, yes, I know-"

"And she has learned more about deal making than any other lougarou I can think of," attempt number three: failed, "but you know why she continues to make amazing changes and how she stays on top of such a huge status? She asks for help, and she takes advice, she's humble enough to learn from others and strong enough to teach others, that's what makes her a good loa,"

Clarity looked up at her brother, trying for her own sake to look like she'd really gotten something out of Tempest's speech. When Tempest searched her face for any indication that she'd learned anything from him, he sighed and dropped his shoulders, smiling at his hands before looking back up at Clarity.

"You know all of that, don't you?" he asked, laughing breathily as he did.

"Yeah, but I like hearing you talk about mom like she's some almighty eldritch being, so I don't mind,"

"You like listening to me talk about mom? Why? It's not like I ever say anything you don't know,"

"True, I do live with her and all," Clarity turned her back on Tempest to wash out her bowl over the kitchen sink as she spoke, "but you get so excited, your eyes light up like it's the coolest possible subject to be talking about, like you'd be honored if she even spoke to you, even though she's our mom,"

Tempest laughed, and soon he was next to her beginning to do the rest of the dishes like the responsible nerd he was, "well, before I knew her, one of the only things I was taught was that higher families were ones to avoid, but that the name Okasa was one I could trust,"

This is another difference between the mortal world and Seperate, how children are born. For reasons no one really understood, children just, rained from the sky, once a day every year, a total of 100 children from around the physical ages of 3-7 would fall from higher than anyone could see, and land on the ground unscathed, as if they'd just fallen off the curb.

Because of this, no one really had parents, the status of orphan was just given to those who never got brought in or given a home by an adult, and the term adopted was reserved for those who only got brought in once they were older than nine. Lucky children, like Highnis, were brought into a home the moment they fell, raised normally and never knowing what it was like to fall into an alleyway and call that your birthplace and home. Not so lucky children, like Tempest and Clarity, were left on the streets as five and six year olds for a few years before they got taken in, and even less lucky children grew up like that, with no roof over their heads and no "legal" family, (legal meaning it was written down on a document).

Technically, Clarity and Tempest were not family, as their parents had never gotten any papers saying they were. As the two of them grew up, they found that they could only ever agree on one thing, they didn't see why a piece of paper should make them family, when they already were, and so, with no need for a legal document, the children were (basically illegally) brought into the Luv family with just the idea that saying so made them siblings.

"You talk like you're about to give me a prophecy," Clarity snarked, cuffing him on the back of the head before pushing herself up to sit beside the sink, "oh great one, what does my future hold,"

"Dishes," Tempest replied, putting a wet plate in her lap.

Clarity sat looking at the wet plate for a minute in horror at having just set up a one liner for Tempest of all people, but this horror came with an odd amount of respect that he was able to go back to washing the dishes afterwards without even a smile. Trying to save the few remaining strands of her dignity, Clarity moved the wet plate off her lap silently, and waved a hot gust of wind over her skirt to dry the fabric. Now that the pair had descended into an awkward silence, one where Clarity couldn't move without making things painfully weird, the two tried to come up with a way to swing back into a conversation.

Moments like these happened often between the two, without Highnis or their mom to hold them back and keep the steady stream of bantar at a minimum, effectively stretching it out, the two ran through every petty insult they could give each other until they were stuck sitting in awkward silence, trying to think of a topic. They both hated these moments, Clarity because they weren't entertaining, and Tempest because he prided himself on always having something to say. As the two avoided eye contact for way too long, Clarity thought desperately on something to ask the other.

"Who's your new deal?" she tried, and could feel the internal sigh of relief pass through both of them as Tempest responded.

"He's an Englishman who's fallen in love with a 'commoner', apparently in some places, only certain people can marry other certain people," Tempest explained, leaning his forearms on the side of the sink, "he wants me to help get the woman he's fallen for up to a high enough status that the two can marry,"

"Marry, what's that?"

"It's kind of like mom and dad, they're bound together in this ceremony and someone declares them one in the same, but their souls are not affected directly through the process,"

"So, nothing really happens? They just, do a little party and leave?" Clarity leaned forward as she spoke, furrowing her eyebrows and looking at her brother.

"Well, I think it's symbolic of something, a big, formal promise of some sort, funny thing is, the ceremony is always between two romantic partners, it can't just be spirit twins,"

Clarity nodded, sitting up straight again, and mulling over the information, before absently asking, "do people have spirit twins?"

Tempest shrugged, "I don't think so, otherwise I feel like they'd let themselves marry whoever they chose, right?"

"Yeah, that makes sense," Clarity agreed.

"So, marry is a romantic thing?" she added.

"Yes, marriage is a romantic thing, and my client wants to be married to a young woman who likes him back,"

"Must really mean a lot, if he's summoning a Loa for it, and one from a 'heathen' religion, shame he didn't summon a holey Christian demon instead,"

Tempest tried to cover his laughter with a cough, failing after he kept laughing anyway. When he finally recovered, he responded with "I honestly think he summoned me in hopes of avoiding having summoned a 'real demon', like in their books,"

"Oh, so we're better to summon than christian demons? Or are we black market versions?" Clarity continued.

"I think 'under the table' is a better term for it," Tempest laughed, "but, he's a good man, I don't think this will send him to Hell, even if I were an 'official demon',"

"Is that what he called you?"

"No, but I've been told I'm not one, by a Roman a while ago, not to sure what he was doing, summoning a Loa and then calling it a 'fake demon', but I didn't mind, he made good deals,"

The two continued to talk, laughing and recounting stories. Eventually Tempest finished doing the dishes and they made their way to the living room, where they found Highnis reading an old book. When Highnis turned around to greet them, it was in a nervous, low whisper.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" he whispered, giving them a small smile, one that they both knew meant he was hiding something.

"Highnis, is everything alright?" Tempest asked, his voice lower but not low enough for Highnis, who cringed and looked down at something in his lap.

"Yeah, yeah it's... fine, but," Highnis laughed a bit, nervous and breathy "could you keep your voice down? There's a... bit of a problem,"


	4. Oh.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> guess who forgot Ao3 existed? sorry mate

Clarity walked towards Highnis slowly, the couch obscuring her view of anything below his shoulders. She made sure to roll her feet as she walked, staying quiet and moving slowly incase Highnis told her not to come forward. When she got close enough to see his lap, she noticed a heavy blanket had been placed next to him, but not on his lap. As Clarity moved closer, she saw chocolate brown fur on Highnis's thigh. Clarity stopped.

"Highnis, did you find a dog?"

Highnis stifled a humorless laugh and shook his head, glancing down at the thing in his lap. Clarity gave him a confused look before taking another step forward to see that first, the fur was actually really long and thin, more like thin hair, and second, underneath the fur was a glint of something metal, and below the fur was a tan peach color. Slowly reaching out her fingers, Clarity brushed the fur out of the way, and found that the metal was very cold, and hooked around the peach material, which was warm and felt like skin.

With a gasp that was more a deep inhale through her nose, Clarity drew her fingers away from the form as she realised it was a head with strange skin. As she stared at it more, she realised it was Blaise, using her brother's leg as a pillow, and more or less laying on his face. Slightly ashamed that it took her such a long time to realise the thing in her brother's lap was a human head, Clarity took to knitting her eyebrows together and pouting her lips a bit.

"That's Blaise," she muttered lamely, having nothing smart or witty to say about it.

"I figured," Highnis responded with the same amount of dumbstruck confusion Clarity had.

"Your client?" Tempest whispered, now making his was over to the couch to see for himself, "he doesn't look strange at all, he's just white,"

"That's not white, that's a weird tan color I'd paint the inside of a beach house with," Clarity said, furrowing her eyebrows and looking at Tempest.

"No, he's not white, it's like how we're black, just an expression I think," Tempest explained, leaning a bit closer to him.

Clarity smacked his shoulder before he could touch Blaise's hair. Standing back up, Tempest looked at Blaise for a second longer before looking at Highnis, back down at Blaise, and then to Clarity. She shrugged, Highnis adjusted the blanket around Blaise, and Tempest shook his head and walked back into the front room. Footsteps told the younger pair he had gone up stairs, and once it sounded like he reached the second floor, they both snapped their heads back to Blaise, studying him like a child would study a strange bug.

However, they didn't shriek when the "bug" started to move, though Clarity did jump more than she would ever admit. A soft noise came from the mop of brown hair, and the blanket next to it began to shift and rise as arms stuck out to stretch and feel around. Eventually turning around, Blaise found lazily pushed himself up and looked around, effortlessly forcing Clarity to forget how to breathe.

Blaise looked around confused for a moment as Clarity continued not breathing. He sat up more as he looked particularly interested in a window, having not noticed the other two in the room, looking to his left he saw Highnis's wing, or rather a few feathers, before he slowly followed the main bone to Highnis's shoulder, then his shoulder to his face. Blaise no longer looked confused, but more so terrified of the huge boy before him.

"You have wings," He said dumbly, still staring awestruck.

"Yup," Highnis answered.

"I'm here too, by the way," Clarity interrupted, causing Blaise to jump and fall onto his back.

Highnis glared at Clarity as she stared at Blaise, eventually looking over to the daggers being thrown her way and shrugging at Highnis's annoyance.

"Are you alright?" Highnis asked, leaning back into Blaise's view.

"I-I'm, y-es, 'm alright," Blaise managed to get out, sucking in a breath and pushing himself back up.

Blaise was wearing different clothes, but he was still covered head to toe, this time in a soft looking fabric that draped over his arms and torso, and matching pants with the same fabric and pinstripe design. His glasses had been knocked askew as he fell, and he reached up to adjust them as he continued to stare at Highnis, forgetting Clarity was there again. Highnis sat in silence and let himself be examined as Blaise gawked at either his height or his wings, maybe both. Eventually the silence became awkward and Highnis tried to start a conversation.

"What are you doing here?" He asked kindly.

"I'm not sure," Blaise whispered, almost afraid that something would disappear if he stopped made too much noise, his face suddenly was struck with fear and he looked up to meet Highnis's eyes better, "A-am I dead?"

"No! I, well I guess I don't know," Highnis admitted, turning to Clarity, "probably not right?"

"No, you're okay," Clarity assured, smirking at Blaise as she did, "why? did you do anything that would get you killed?"

"N-no," he responded curtly.

They all fell back into silence with each other, and Blaise's gaze wandered back to Highnis, studying his soft wings for a moment more before he spoke again, "are you an angel?"

Highnis got this a lot, never from humans (he'd never actually met one) but from other Lougarou, who all thought they were being clever and smooth.Not expecting the question, Highnis didn't answer right away, but instead froze and bowed his head in embarrassment, his cheeks turning a light green.

"He's a loa, actually," Clarity corrected, forgetting that she was probably the only loa Blaise had seen and took the question as an insult to her brother.

Blaise nodded, still not looking away from Highnis. The three continued to just stare at each other, Clarity realised that there was no point in trying to question Blaise, he was clearly unsure of what was happening himself, so she kept her mouth shut for once and leaned further over the back of the couch. Highnis, in the meantime, had recovered from Blaise's question and looked back up at Blaise, who was still staring transfixed at his wings. Glancing up at Clarity for a brief moment, Highnis slowly moved his right wing closer to Blaise's chest, still studying him in case this was the wrong thing to do.

It was, the moment the Highnis began to move, Blaise made a startled humming noise and flinched away, snapping his gaze up to Highnis with worry. Highnis opened his mouth to say something, then thought better of it and just moved his wing back to his side.

"Clarity," a voice behind them spoke, causing all three of them to jump and turn to the noise.

It was Tempest, who either learned to sneak around very easily and very quickly, or was completely ignored in favor of the awkward, tense silence that was created in Blaise's wake. he was holding his phone out for Clarity to take, the screen indicated that he had called someone, but Clarity couldn't see the caller ID. Behind her, Blaise whispered something and Highnis answered, Clarity turned to look at them only to have her foot stepped on by Tempest.

"It's for you," he said in a "what are you doing, did you break?" tone.

Clarity shook her head and took the phone, holding it up to her ear and speaking, "Hello?"

"Hey Clarity," her mom responded.

Clarity sighed in both relief and exhaustion, of course Tempest called mom, who else would he call?

"Hey, aren't you at work?" Clarity asked, throwing her brother a look as she walked past him into the hallway.

"This is a bit more important than work, don't you think?" Okasa teased.

"Yeah, maybe a bit, what did Tempest tell you?"

"That you made a deal while he was out, and something went wrong, so now there's a man in the living room who's supposed to be on earth,"

"Yup," Clarity admitted, "that pretty much sums it up,"

"Is anyone hurt?" Okasa asked.

"No, we're fine, well, Tempest is probably having a mental break down, and Blaise got scared when Highnis moved, which scarred Highnis, and I'm panicking a bit if I'm honest, but physically everyone's good," Clarity joked in a desperate attempt to make some light of the situation.

"That's good to hear," Okasa responded, still matter-of-fact, "Blaise is the deal you made?"

"Yeah, he's kinda small and he acts like the wind could knock him over, it probably could honestly, he wants help getting away with murder, so far though I'm not sure if he has it in him to pick up a knife,"

"and he's in the other room?" her mom reminded.

Oh, yeah, Clarity thought, he is.

"Clarity that's not nice!" Highnis shouted from down the hall.

"I know," Clarity shouted back, trying desperately to cover her laughter at Tempest's exhausted sigh, "yes he's in the other room,"

"Alright," Okasa said, Clarity could hear the exhausted smile in her mom's voice, "I'll be back as soon as I can, we'll figure this out sweetheart,"

"Oh that's okay, I think we got thi-"

"Give me thirty minutes, at most," Okasa interrupted, "Love you,"

Click, beep.

Clarity sighed and leaned back against the wall, preparing for the lecture she was sure she'd be getting from Tempest the moment she joined her brother's and deal again. She took the few seconds she had in silence to calm down from her panic, knowing that her mom was coming was a huge relief, not that she'd ever admit it. After a moment Clarity pushed herself off the wall and a thought entered her mind.

This will at least be amusing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear I'll be consistent with this from now on


	5. Mom to the rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> again there was no good stopping point... this one just... ends? Also I swear I'm not forgetting post dates on purpose.

A thing to know about Clarity, while she does like being right, but she's not too bothered about being wrong. It simply wasn't something that bothered her, so when she re-entered her family room to see a very exhausted Tempest, glaring at her with the hate of a thousand men, a shaking and near crying Blaise, seemingly nursing his arm, and a very panicked Highnis, who was desperately apologizing to Blaise, Clarity was not afraid to admit that no, this was not going to be amusing. This was going to be the death of her.

After a moment of looking around at her surroundings, Clarity sighed and looked at Tempest, "I was gone for like two minutes," she whined while handing his phone back, "I'm not even the peacekeeper here, how did things spiral out of control because I left?"

"it's not because you left, Highnis hurt Blaise by accident because he's used to being the smallest one here and Blaise is at least two feet shorter," Tempest explained.

Highnis, who hadn't noticed Clarity was there, slowly extended his arm to reach towards Blaise, who drew in a deep breath (Clarity was beginning to think this was a nervous tick of his) and cautiously gave Highnis his injured arm. Clarity smirked at the display and Tempest hit the back of her head lightly, glaring at her and nodding to the scene before them. when Clarity didn't understand what he was trying to tell her, Tempest took her arm and pulled her closer.

"You need to figure out how to act around Blaise if your deal is going to work, and if he's going to keep appearing in our living room at random," he whispered, "Look at Highnis,"

Clarity looked back over to the two, Highnis was currently hovering his hand over Blaise's arm, a soft blue light came from Highnis's palm and Blaise was visibly relaxed by the action. after a moment, the light faded and Highnis slowly drew his hand back, dropping it in his lap, Blaise followed the movement as he rolled his sleeve up, then looked up at Highnis and smiled, clearly at ease. Clarity wasn't aware he could do that, smile, or be at ease.

As Blaise smiled at Highnis, Highnis looked at his teeth, perplexed, "your teeth are so weird looking!" he whispered, then smacked a hand over his mouth.

Clarity found this greatly amusing, and doubled over in loud, annoying laughter. Somewhere behind Clarity's outburst, Highnis was trying to correct himself to an already very confused Blaise. With her arms holding her stomach, Clarity tried to stand up right, but made no attempt to stop laughing, she looked up to see Tempest glaring at her, but at the same time was struggling to hold back laughter himself.

"People learned to grow plants they could eat before they learned how to keep animals still to farm, so they didn't need sharp teeth when they first started out," Tempest explained.

"We don't need to eat?" Highnis said.

"I imagine our teeth are typically sharp in nature to intimidate possible opponents, but of course since we don't reproduce naturally, survival of the fittest doesn't work for us the same way it works for animals and humans, so I suppose-"

"Tempest, stop," Clarity interrupted.

Tempest looked up at Highnis to see he was completely lost, and Blaise was somehow even more confused than before. He sighed and turned to Clarity, clearly upset that he couldn't ramble on for the next few hours about science and history.

"What's mom doing?" he asked instead.

"She's coming home to figure this out, she said thirty minutes tops," Clarity said.

"Mom?" Blaise asked, turning to Highnis.

"Our mom is a super cool loa, she doesn't make deals with humans very often, but she usually helps people find kids, and helps kids stay safe, since she sort of owns the one place we fall from," Highnis explained, trying his best to keep everything simple but still make sense.

"I- Ezili?" Blaise asked, seeming confused and maybe nervous.

"No, her name's Okasa, I don't think she's worshiped on Earth,"

"She was for a bit, but then there were two other loas that stepped in and took her place, so now I think she was just forgotten by the Earth," Clarity jumped in.

Blaise bowed his head and considered this for a while, then eventually nodded and looked back up. After a moment, Tempest walked around the couch and sat down a little away from Blaise, who tensed up and studied Tempest warily. Tempest responded by shifting further away from Blaise, and moving his hands to his lap, when Blaise didn't calm down from the motion, Tempest smiled and spoke.

"I don't want to hurt you, I just have a few questions,"

Still not trusting the ten foot, demonic looking man in front of him, Blaise hesitantly looked to Clarity for some kind of approval. Clarity drew her eyebrows together in confused amusement and nodded towards Tempest.

"The scariest thing about Tempest is how many questions he can ask in a minute, you're fine," She teased.

Blaise nodded again, still seeming uncomfortable, and turned to Tempest, who lit up and leaned forward, not noticing how Blaise moved back at the same time.

"What were you doing before you came here?"

"I was asleep, I- I didn' mean to come here, really-"

"Blaise," Clarity sighed, taking a couple steps forward to lean on the back of the couch "No one here is mad, we're all just very confused and want to get this over with,"

For reasons Clarity couldn't figure out, Blaise seemed to relax at the comment, he nodded and turned back to Tempest.

"She's right," Tempest agreed, still speaking lowly, as if too loud a noise would send Blaise into another panic, "I just want to help,"

"What did you do right after you went back to Earth?" Highnis asked.

Blaise whipped his head around to look at Highnis before he spoke, "Just went home, had dinner, and went to bed,"

"Did you talk to anyone at all?" Clarity asked, she didn't see how that would help them find anything out, she just wanted to know if this guy actually talked to people.

"Jus' a friend I ran into on the way home, and not for long," Blaise responded.

Tempest gave Clarity a confused look, to which she shrugged at and turned back to Blaise, "does anyone know what you did?"

"No!" Blaise shouted, then seemed unsure of himself and continued, "I, I don' think so,"

The questioning went on for some time, and eventually Clarity realised that Blaise seemed more willing to give a straight answer to Highnis or Tempest, so she stopped talking, which was insanely boring. Clarity was relieved when the front door opened up, footsteps quickly echoed through the front room and soon her mom was coming into the living room, looking around at everyone and pausing when she saw Blaise, giving him a kind but professional smile before turning to Tempest.

"Anything happen while I was gone?" she asked.

"Oh nothing," Clarity said before Tempest could answer, "we've just been trying to find out why the heck there's a human guy in our living room while said human guy tries to figure out who is and who is not trying to kill him, even though we've all said we don't want to kill him,"

"Nothing new since when we called," Tempest corrected after Clarity.

"Uh, yes something new," Highnis countered, "I made a new friend,"

Okasa brought a hand to her mouth to cover her laugh, shaking her head slightly and turning to Blaise, "I'm so sorry for any grief they may have put you through,"

"Oh," Blaise whispered, before finding his voice and answering "T-that's alri't miss, I-I'm alri',"

"I'm happy to hear it," Okasa said, taking a small step forward as she spoke.


	6. No.

Watching as the two spoke, Clarity found it odd that Blaise was so at ease with Okasa, that he didn't tense or panic or try to move away as she moved towards him, instead Blaise just talked with her he probably would with any "normal" person. Clarity glanced at Tempest, who looked at her with a different kind of confusion, like he couldn't understand how she was confused. Highnis held a similar look. Clarity decided it didn't matter, and simply turned back to watching the two interact.

Blaise was laughing, and it wasn't the breathy nervous laugh that Clarity usually heard from him, it was a light, happy laugh. He sounded almost at ease, which made Clarity feel a little uneasy.

"Sweetheart, can I see your bracelet?" Okasa asked, turning to Clarity with an outstretched arm.

"Yup," Clarity responded, pulling the beads off of her wrist and handing them to her mom.

Anytime a loa made a deal, a small bead would appear in their hand, a reminder of what they had to do and what they would get in return. Most times, these beads where kept in small compartments, Okasa and Tempest kept theirs in specially designed drawers (Okasa had many drawers stacked on top of each other, more like a fat filing cabinet, while Tempest only had two in his room), Highnis kept the few he had in a mason jar he "borrowed", and their dad kept his in a small display case, because he thought they were pretty.

The beads were important to anyone who cared about status. Powerful loas typically kept their most important deals out and around their house in creative displays and huge, specially designed cases, jumping at any opportunity to show off the deals and each detail they displayed. These small beads had become somewhat of a cultural center to loa. Separate was covered in shiny charms and colorful lights, they had inspired a specific attention to pearl necklaces and beaded clothing, and important buildings were bright and colorful.

Clarity liked the idea of showing off the beads at all times, so after she collected enough of her own beads (most of them being small yellow beads that she'd earned making "deals" with her parents) she found ways to string them together without damaging them, and kept them as necklaces and bracelets. After a while, the beads began appearing with small holes in the centers, so she could easily thread them into the bracelets she already had.

As Okasa took the beads, she studied them for a minute, looking specifically at the pale blue one that signified Clarity's deal with Blaise. Clarity smiled as she remembered she didn't tell her mom which one was Blaise's, meaning Okasa just knew which one was new and which ones had been there before.

"There's nothing wrong with it," she stated, drawing her eyebrows together, "so your deal is fine,"

Everyone stayed silent as Okasa thought, still studying the bead. Clarity looked over to Blaise who was still staring at Okasa, but was subconsciously moving closer to Highnis, who looked very proud about this. Clarity smirked at this and looked up to Highnis, cooing at him and mocking him for being so happy that Blaise trusted him. Highnis responded by sticking his tongue out at her, and shifting slightly to let Blaise move closer.

Tempest, who had noticed what Highnis was doing before Clarity, laughed and threw a nearby pencil at Highnis, "Stop altering, you can live without everyone loving you," he laughed.

"Tempest," Okasa warned, "be nice,"

Clarity failed to stifle a laugh as Tempest seemed to realize how unprofessional throwing things at people is and looked straight to Blaise who was trying to get someone to explain what altering meant. Taking the opportunity as it was, a chance to be annoying, Clarity ruffled Tempest's hair and whispered.

"you can live without everyone thinking you were born and raised in an office building,"

"Clarity," Okasa drawled.

"Sorry mom,"

"No you're not," Tempest hissed.

"No I'm not," Clarity breathed, before accepting her bracelet back from Okasa.

Deciding to ignore the exchange, Okasa sighed, "was there anything unusual about how you were summoned?"

"Oh yeah," Clarity answered, not catching how Blaise seemed to panic slightly at this, "there weren't any drums, it was just Blaise, I didn't feel any sacrifice, but there might have been something small, also I didn't mount anyone? I don't know if that would be enough to cause something like this though, I mean Tempest has had deals like that before, when he's treated like a demon, not a loa," she hesitated for a moment, trying to think of if anything else was off, before turning to Blaise, "Hey did you draw the circle in flour?"

Absolutely mortified, Blaise nodded mutely. Even Highnis had a hard time not finding this amusing, turning his head to cover his smile.

"And what did you ask of him?" Okasa asked, her smile never wavering.

"His soul after he died,"

Tempest gasped, "are you a christian demon?" he accused under his breath.

Clarity moved to hit Tempest before Okasa cleared her throat, so instead she glared at him and turned back to her mom.

"His ti bon ange or gros bon ange?" Okasa asked.

Clarity cringed and bowed her head, about to answer before Blaise spoke, "My what?"

Everyone froze at the implication of Blaise's question, and Clarity began regretting her quick thinking. While Highnis turned to face Blaise, Tempest stared holes into the side of Clarity's head. Clarity, in the mean time, was looking up at her mom through her bowed head.

"Your big angel and your little angel," Highnis whispered cautiously.

"You asked for his "soul"?" Tempest accused at the same time.

"I figured he didn't know what it would mean!" Clarity shouted, desperately trying to redeem herself, "I just meant his ti bon ange, I wasn't going to take more than that, and that's what he thought I was saying anyway,"

A "soul" was not a thing in the human body, instead they have a ti bon ange, also called a little good angel, which functions as the person's willpower and conscious, and a gros bon ange, or big good angel, which was what kept a person moving, sort of like their heart. By asking for Blaise's soul, which does not exist, and planning to take his little good angel, Clarity had gone back on a deal before it was even made. Which was a huge taboo in a culture largely centered around deal making.

Blaise and Highnis whispered to each other, each response from Highnis worrying Blaise more and more. Tempest continued to stare at Clarity, not entirely with anger anymore but he still wasn't happy, and Okasa sighed, no longer smiling.

"Blaise," Okasa asked, turning to the smaller man, "do you want to back out of your deal with Clarity?"

Clarity was well aware she deserved this, she caused lots of damage and possibly shred the fabric of reality in her rush to make a deal with an easy catch, so she deserved to have said deal broken. As she looked at Blaise, trying to look as apologetic as possible, she prepared herself for the sinking feeling in her stomach she'd get as the deal was severed, and the headache she'd get both from being lectured by Tempest and the natural effects of having a deal severed from herself. Basically a dramatic hangover was in store.

What she was not prepared for was the almost defensive look she got back from Blaise.

"No," he answered, not looking at Okasa, but instead looking straight at Clarity.

Oh, nice.


	7. Bayou

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blaise might be smarter than you think

"No?" Tempest asked, his eyebrows knit together, "why not? she lied to you and used you,"

Blaise opened his mouth to respond, shut it, and opened it again, "w-what else would she 'ave done?"

At this point, even Okasa was clearly confused by Blaise, she had her head tilted to the side slightly as she raised an eyebrow. Highnis was much worse off, looking as if he'd taken physical damage from the comment, he leaned back slightly and squint-stared at Blaise.

"I had no idea what I was doing, I only rushed into all a' this because I was hoping whoever showed up wou'd make a sim'lar deal," Blaise continued, taking the confused silence as a prompting to go on, "I killed a man a week a'go, hid his body in mie attic until I eventually panicked and fed him to my neighbor's dogs, where else would I go after mie life but t' Hell? I thought that maybe by selling my soul to a loa, who doe'n't deal wi'h Hell, I'd escape that, and if mie "little good angel" is exactly what I wan'ed you to take, then why would I sep'rate my deal?"

That... was a great plan. Clarity had no other thought in her mind for the next minute other than that was a great plan. The next thought to come to her was that she had absolutely been used by this small, stuttering, anxious wreck of a man and that he would've gotten away with it if she hadn't been greedy, and then she realized that she was still keeping the easiest deal she'd ever gotten.

"Wait so you're totally chill with this?" she asked.

Blaise glanced at her with a confused look, "I... am fine wi'h our deal as is, yes,"

"Even though I took total advantage of you not knowing anything about deals?" Clarity pressed, "and used that to come out on top, with more than you bargained for apparently?"

"Wouldn' tha' be the point for you?" Blaise countered, looking, and sounding like a lost puppy, "t' come out on top, wi'h more than me?"

Clarity blinked a few times, trying to convince herself that she had heard Blaise correctly. So, when everything stayed the same after she tried to clear her head, her face split into a toothy smirk, quickly turning to Highnis to speak.

"Don't," Highnis sighed, still trying to recover from Blaise's first explanation.

"Okay fine," Clarity amended, looking down at her feet for a second before looking straight at Blaise, "wait so was the stuttering thing an act too?"

Blaise startled and flushed at the question, "I-Ih'm sorry?"

"Right, cool, just checking," Clarity confirmed with a smirk.

Okasa sighed and cleared her throat, "If you're finished?" she asked.

"oh, uh... Yeah, I'll shut up now,"

Tempest made a small noise at Clarity, then refused to meet her eye as Okasa spoke, "This is likely what is causing this rift, whatever your combined meaning of a soul is must have been enough apart of Blaise that the deal means Blaise himself, and coming to Separate has convinced the deal that you are already dead, and thus belong to Clarity,"

She hummed in response, "so, we should probably change a few things,"

Yet another small noise came from Blaise, not quite a hum, but more of a squeak, "no,"

Clarity was beginning to wonder if humans had learned to project while she was gone, the act of pushing the feelings you have onto another person or group of people, because everyone was confused again. Still, Blaise disagreeing with her was funny, so she figured his reasoning would be better.

"alright, go ahead," she prompted when Blaise didn't continue, "what's another way you're going to use this to your advantage?"

Blaise took in a deep breath, seeming to find comfort in Clarity's dismissive attitude, "If this is what happens when I die, I won't be dead, just somewhere else, right?"

Clarity wasn't too sure if that was how it worked, and clearly Tempest thought the same, but Clarity wasn't letting Blaise know that, "sounds legit, but how are you going back home until you actually die?" she asked.

Clearly, no one had thought about this, because Clarity's question was met with silence, and a severe lack of eye contact. After everyone had stayed silent for long enough to prove Clarity's point, she took a step forward and leaned over the back of the couch, smirking at Blaise, and raising an eyebrow.

"You can't kill people here, we don't die easy," she reminded.

"What do you think we should do?" Tempest asked, smacking at her hand.

"So glad you asked, because while you were being a nerd and mom was being confused, I figured out what to do, and how to keep Blaise where he's at," Clarity bragged, only to be faced with a very unimpressed look from her brother, "I did!"

He hummed in faux agreement, "what do we do?"

"Right so, since I was just planning on shadowing Blaise, I can shadow cross to where he summoned me, we'll find a house, get him through a doorway, and leave the soul bead with him, easy,"

"Wait," this came from multiple people, so Clarity sighed and pointed to Blaise to talk, "What do you mean shadow cross? And wha- why do I need tha- the bead?"

"The bead is what our deal works off of, it's where you're supposed to go when you die, so if you have it, then every time you 'die' you'll just appear next to the bead, probably, shadow crossing is just using the absence of light in our world to get to absences of light in your world," she explained, and pointed to Tempest for him to talk.

"you'd just leave the soul bead with him?" he asked.

"yeah, what's he gonna do? Break it?"

"I wouldn'!" Blaise interrupted.

"Good," laughed Clarity, "it'll probably kill us both if you did," Blaise paled and Clarity laughed, so Tempest took over explaining.

"A bead is more connected to whoever gets more out of it, since you both tried to trick each other into getting more out of your deal, I suppose that you might both be connected to it enough that breaking the bead would at least hurt," he rambled, then turned back to Clarity, "you'd trust him with your life, essentially?"

"I mean sure," Clarity said with a shrug, "It's not like he's actively saving me from anything more then carrying a bead for me, I've been in worse situations," she pointed to Highnis to talk.

"you know the place he summoned you well enough that you could shadow cross without someone there?" Hignis asked skeptically.

Clairty nodded, "yeah, it looked super weird, like, trees growing out of water, big, shallow ocean with mossy stuff on it, kinda scarred in my memory,"

"You've never been to a bayou?" Blaise asked.

"if that's what that thing was, then no, never been to a bayou,"

The look she got from Blaise made her feel stupid, "you're a loa,"

Clarity responded with a glare, "yes, and I haven't been summoned since you guys started counting the years, last time I saw a human person was in Africa,"

"oh,"

Oh, she internally mocked, hey I'm older than civilization itself, oh.

"yeah, oh," she giggled.

A soft hum of laughter and a hand on her shoulder brought Clarity's attention back to her mother, who was smiling genuinely at her, proudly. Clarity would kill to get that look more often.

"I raised such smart kids," she whispered, probably just to herself, "if you think this will work, I don't see what the harm is in trying, stay safe," she kissed Clarity's forehead, then turned and nodded to Blaise.

Now swimming in her newly inflated ego, Clarity smirked, "a'ight, let's go!"

**Author's Note:**

> speaking of weak, wow that was a shit ending, I just wanted to get this up for Mardi Gras, but I have the feeling no ones going to see it today anyways, ah well.


End file.
